a moment in the pale gloom and breathed in deeply, calming himself.
Be scientific. Always. If you havenât got your objectivity, you havenât got anything.
Down in the chamber, the girl â the subject â lay where theyâd left her that morning, stretched out on the central podium, still heavily tranqued into coma. Theyâd keep her that way for a few days yet, Janil knew. That would give him time to run the tests he needed, and to take samples: blood, hair, skin, bone marrow, a cortex biopsy ⦠the list went on and on. Theyâd keep her hydrated and fed intravenously. There was no choice there, anyway; Port City didnât have the sort of solid nutrition she was used to. When theyâd established their approach protocols, theyâd wake her and heâd go in and they could start on socialisation.
She looked so small. So tiny.
Stop it! He shook his head. Sheâs a subject. Nothing more. Sheâs DNA and melanin and blood and flesh. Just like all the others.
Except there wouldnât be any others. Not now. Sky! Even this one was an unexpected bonus, a last gasp. She was it, and if he and his father couldnât unlock the secrets hidden away inside every fibre, tissue and protein of her body, there was no future for any of them.
Try telling that to the Prelate, though.
Actually, telling her wasnât the difficult bit. Heâd told her in the meeting and in the report heâd submitted six months earlier â the report she hadnât even acknowledged receiving. No, telling the Prelate was easy. Convincing her, though, that was something else. Janil punched a couple of commands into the interface and immediately the readout began scrolling past:
CONFIDENTIAL: FOR PRELATEâS EYES ONLY
The Entropy Scenario
A report outlining trends in socio-cultural, political and genetic breakdown in Port SkyCity, based on estimates first predicted by Dr E. Mann
By Janil Mann, DGAP research division
In the late 21st century a series of floods and volcanic eruptions, attributed to rapid, large-scale climate change, led to the destabilisation of a large number of fission reactors and waste storage facilities throughout Asia, Australasia, Eastern China and along the western seaboards of both North America and South America. In the wake of these disasters, known collectively today as the Pacific Circle Catastrophe, it was decided by the federal powers of several nations that a viable alternative was needed to existing modes of human societal interactivity. This would, by necessity, require the modelling of a range of alternative approaches to human social evolution, covering both the broad picture and the minutiae of human society â¦
The words scrolled by, so familiar that Janil could have recited them, had he wanted to. He stabbed at an icon and the words jumped ahead.
⦠This conclusion would seem to be inevitable at this point. As outlined in sections 23 and 24 above, there are a number of possible methods of combating these trends, but these are, at best, symptomatic treatments which will without doubt fail to address the underlying causes of social and infrastructural breakdown within the fabric of this and other skycities.
The notions of entropy used to define this trend are still sketchy and, as mentioned earlier, the term itself is flawed. However, as this report outlines, I believe that a quantifiable measurement of the degree to which energy is leaching from the cityâs systems, and the degree of degradation of the protocols which have for a millennium kept that energy confined and viable, is possible given the time and the resources. Furthermore, I believe that studies into the socio-cultural impacts of this slow breakdown should be commissioned without delay â¦
And there it was, right in front of them, but did they listen? No, of course not. It wasnât what the Prelate wanted to hear, so she simply decided not to. And his father, of all
Be scientific. Always. If you havenât got your objectivity, you havenât got anything.
Down in the chamber, the girl â the subject â lay where theyâd left her that morning, stretched out on the central podium, still heavily tranqued into coma. Theyâd keep her that way for a few days yet, Janil knew. That would give him time to run the tests he needed, and to take samples: blood, hair, skin, bone marrow, a cortex biopsy ⦠the list went on and on. Theyâd keep her hydrated and fed intravenously. There was no choice there, anyway; Port City didnât have the sort of solid nutrition she was used to. When theyâd established their approach protocols, theyâd wake her and heâd go in and they could start on socialisation.
She looked so small. So tiny.
Stop it! He shook his head. Sheâs a subject. Nothing more. Sheâs DNA and melanin and blood and flesh. Just like all the others.
Except there wouldnât be any others. Not now. Sky! Even this one was an unexpected bonus, a last gasp. She was it, and if he and his father couldnât unlock the secrets hidden away inside every fibre, tissue and protein of her body, there was no future for any of them.
Try telling that to the Prelate, though.
Actually, telling her wasnât the difficult bit. Heâd told her in the meeting and in the report heâd submitted six months earlier â the report she hadnât even acknowledged receiving. No, telling the Prelate was easy. Convincing her, though, that was something else. Janil punched a couple of commands into the interface and immediately the readout began scrolling past:
CONFIDENTIAL: FOR PRELATEâS EYES ONLY
The Entropy Scenario
A report outlining trends in socio-cultural, political and genetic breakdown in Port SkyCity, based on estimates first predicted by Dr E. Mann
By Janil Mann, DGAP research division
In the late 21st century a series of floods and volcanic eruptions, attributed to rapid, large-scale climate change, led to the destabilisation of a large number of fission reactors and waste storage facilities throughout Asia, Australasia, Eastern China and along the western seaboards of both North America and South America. In the wake of these disasters, known collectively today as the Pacific Circle Catastrophe, it was decided by the federal powers of several nations that a viable alternative was needed to existing modes of human societal interactivity. This would, by necessity, require the modelling of a range of alternative approaches to human social evolution, covering both the broad picture and the minutiae of human society â¦
The words scrolled by, so familiar that Janil could have recited them, had he wanted to. He stabbed at an icon and the words jumped ahead.
⦠This conclusion would seem to be inevitable at this point. As outlined in sections 23 and 24 above, there are a number of possible methods of combating these trends, but these are, at best, symptomatic treatments which will without doubt fail to address the underlying causes of social and infrastructural breakdown within the fabric of this and other skycities.
The notions of entropy used to define this trend are still sketchy and, as mentioned earlier, the term itself is flawed. However, as this report outlines, I believe that a quantifiable measurement of the degree to which energy is leaching from the cityâs systems, and the degree of degradation of the protocols which have for a millennium kept that energy confined and viable, is possible given the time and the resources. Furthermore, I believe that studies into the socio-cultural impacts of this slow breakdown should be commissioned without delay â¦
And there it was, right in front of them, but did they listen? No, of course not. It wasnât what the Prelate wanted to hear, so she simply decided not to. And his father, of all
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